Christianity & Brainwashing....

"When someone shows you who they are, believe them."

HAha..thats a great quote...and its about damn time i start doing that...

You know I hope it never comes to that....that one day he will wake up shocked and confused.  Its a tragic thing.  He's got a family now, and I assume will have kids very soon...Plus he is a "teacher"....He is pretty well "locked" in so to speak.  It is so tragic what is going to happen to a lot of good hearted christians who have been "led astray"....its funny, despite the New Testaments obvious errors...one of the things that is written within it ..is that the "very elect" will be deceived...nuff said...

Whats crazy is that his dad (my uncle)  knows the deal...I know he does cuz everytime he comes  to visit hes like "Cheney...thats guys so dirty" LOL....i smile but ive never gone into depth on just how "dirty he is"....His dad is Christian too but was really converted because of his wife(cousins mother)...who is a hardcore christian.....so now I think hes caught in the middle...Like i said before, he works in Houston of all places and he hears it in the restuarants and on the golf courses...likes its no big secret...He has to have some kind of idea whats going on....but he probably doesn't have the stones to admit to himself or his family...major denial ......

Again, im not a religious dude but ive studied a lot of religion because of my other interests in the Illuminati/Pagan deception.....and another quote from the bible that has been on mind lately is the one about in the last days..."a mans foes being they of his own household"........that pretty much nails it.....If I gotta choose between keeping things all "cozy" with friends or family members by being silent about something that is so obvious and telling them the truth (or something closer to it) because I do really care about them....im takin the latter.....

If you are intent on reaching your cousin with a different perspective, then maybe you could use the bible as a reference point, as Jezreel mentioned.  Of course, there is the option of not using your energy on your cousin, and that is a decision you will make.

I read a book called "Are we living in the End Times?" by LaHaye and Jenkins, the authors of the "Left Behind" series that has sold over 50 million copies.

In the book, "Are we living in the End Times?" they describe their interpretation of the bible which they used as a basis for the fictional series.

What surprised me at the time was the large overlap between that book and the views of people today who are called "conspiracy theorists".

For example, there is a large emphasis on the one world government and they go into detail about a possible upcoming shift to a cashless society which will be manipulated by the powers that be - the New World Order.

Of course, there's mention of 666 and the mark of the beast as well.

Amen sister Lyra!
We do have to honor where someone else is at without any judgement. If we don't it means we aren't even truly offering ourselves the same courtesy for where we seemingly are or have seemingly been. It is all God. All things being equal. Although different paths seem to have different consequences. And judgements certainly make a mess of things.
Christianity as I know it is an insidious thing, driving people through fear, guilt, and shame. SHACKLES! Don't do this or don't do that or you're in for it when you get home. Makes one afraid to make mistakes or even explore the possibility of other view points.

For what it's worth, another Christian's point of view:

The Immorality Deception
Dr. Robin Meyers Oklahoma University Peace Rally November 14, 2004

As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, an Open and Affirming, Peace and Justice church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University.

But you would most likely have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have been a columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most number of angry letters to the editor. Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian. We’ve heard a lot lately about so-called “moral values”  as having swung the election to President Bush. Well, I’m a great believer in moral values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country, about exactly what constitutes a moral value–I mean what are we talking about.

Because we don’t get to make them up as we go along, especially not if we are people of faith. We have an inherited tradition of what is right and wrong, and moral is as moral does. Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in power who claim moral values are on their side:

When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God’s will, and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.–When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.

When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like that we must never return violence for violence and that those who live by the sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.

When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.

When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question the patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero, you are doing something immoral.

When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.

When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called “enemy combatants”  of the rules of the Geneva convention, which your own country helped to establish and insists that other countries follow, you are doing something immoral.

When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys and the evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who are with you, or with the terrorists–and then launch a war which enriches your own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted, instead of helping us to kick the habit, you are doing something immoral.

When you fail to veto a single spending bill, but ask us to pay for a war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks of our children, you are doing something immoral.

When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country that was once the most loved country in the world, and act like it doesn’t matter what others think of us, only what God thinks of you, you have done something immoral.

When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool of discrimination, you are doing something immoral.

When you favor the death penalty, and yet claim to be a follower of Jesus, who said an eye for an eye was the old way, not the way of the kingdom, you are doing something immoral.

When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect the earth which is God’s gift to us all, so that the corporations that bought you and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our children breathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done something  immoral. The earth belongs to the Lord, not Halliburton.

When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral.  We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.

When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a “compassionate conservative,”  using the word which is the essence of all religious faith–compassion–and then show no compassion for anyone who disagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry to you for help, you are doing something immoral.

When you talk about Jesus constantly, who was a healer of the sick, but do nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go  to see a doctor, even if she doesn’t have a penny in her pocket, you  are doing something immoral.

When you put judges on the bench who are racist, and will set women back a hundred years, and when you surround yourself with preachers who say gays ought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.

I’m tired of people thinking that because I’m a Christian, I must be a supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and gay rights I must not be a person of faith. I’m tired of people saying that I can’t support the troops but oppose the war–I heard that when I was your age, when the Vietnam war was raging.  We knew that that war was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong–the only question is how many people are going to die before these make-believe Christians are removed from power.

This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of this administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people who can turn things around are people like you--young people who are just beginning to wake up to what is happening to them.  It’s your country to take back. It’s your faith to take back. It’s your future to take back.

Don’t be afraid to speak out. Don’t back down when your friends begin to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be wrapped around the cross, while the rest of us keep our mouths shut. Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews, and real Muslims, and real Hindus, and real Buddhists–so do all the faith traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is precious. Every human being is precious. Arrogance is the opposite of faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith.

And war–war is the greatest failure of the human race–and thus the greatest failure of faith.

There’s an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it all: War, what is it good for–absolutely nothing.

And what is the dream of the prophets?  That we should study war no more, that we should beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Who would Jesus bomb? Indeed How many wars does it take to know that too many people have died?  What if they gave a war and nobody came? Maybe one day we will find out.

Time to march again my friends. Time to commit acts of civil disobedience. Time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to participate in the madness. My generation finally stopped a tragic war. You can too!

“Only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.”  - Martin Luther King

Dr. Robin Meyers
405-842-8897

http://www.threeworldwars.com/blog/index.php/P54/

It is so tragic what is going to happen to a lot of good hearted christians who have been "led astray"....its funny, despite the New Testaments obvious errors...one of the things that is written within it ..is that the "very elect" will be deceived...nuff said...

Actually the scripture actually says the very elect would be decieved IF that were possible.  I think that sheds a whole new light on what and who the "elect" even are..., don't you??;)

I think that Christ (or Christs) did know the path to spiritual freedom (like Buddha) and probably could help people to some extent achieve it.

But there is not very much about Christianity in general that helps you to achieve spiritual knowledge apart from that you should put in some effort to be spiritual. (That's not to say there aren't some Christians with some spiritual knowledge or that being a Christian doesn't help at all).

I generally don't think reliance on faith is that good a thing and it can too easily be used to control people.

Any workable path to spiritual freedom should surely let you gain knowledge for yourself.